On April 26, luxury real estate buyers and investors, as well as community and business leaders from Southern California and Mexico, gathered at the J Bar atop Hotel Solamar in downtown San Diego for a night of music, live entertainment and Mexican revelry.

A new generation of Mexican homebuilders is developing homes with features and amenities unavailable in the United States at any price. Leveraging the lower land, labor and wholesale material costs, developers are offering buyers priced out of the north-of-the-border market affordable, quality homes in gated, landscaped neighborhoods that more resemble Tierrasanta than Tijuana. And customers are buying.

Baja Resort Advisors LLC, a La Jolla-based housing and resort development firm, will build a master-planned residential, vineyard and resort community in the Guadalupe Valley Wine Country, just east of Ensenada and known as the Napa Valley of Mexico. American buyers have expressed a keen interest in the Guadalupe Valley as a unique opportunity for estate-style living surrounded by the vineyards at prices reminiscent of Napa Valley 50 years ago.

Cabo is one of the great success stories of The Mexican government agency FONATUR's plan to draw tourism to its shores. Americans and other foreigners in Cabo have bought and sold real estate there for many years. In fact, property values there have increased to the point where Cabo is not affordable for most U.S. residents, and developers there are scrambling to find ways to attract buyers with developments that feature fractional ownership and other steps to make ownership more affordable. The question that follow is: Why not the Rosarito to Ensenada Gold Coast?

Gabriel Robles, president of the Resort Real Estate Developers Association of Baja California, said he's seen a United Nations map that speculates by about the year 2040, California and the Mexican state of Baja California will essentially be one state.

Buying luxury real estate in Mexico has never been more attractive, thanks to more liberal lending policies from U.S. companies, competitive pricing and healthy appreciation in luxury developments like Punta Mita, say brokers and analysts. Punta Mita, a 1,500-acre, master-planned, luxury second-home resort community on Mexico's West Coast, experienced a 26 percent increase in sales from 2004 to 2006 and at full build-out will have a real estate value of approximately $2 billion.

Joel Gamez of Crown Jewel Penthouses is preparing to offer investors looking for diversification and the opportunity to participate in the appreciation of the Mexican real estate boom without the management responsibility.

Beachfront Baja, a team of San Diego and Baja real estate sales and marketing professionals, represents quality developers in Baja Norte's Rosarito to Ensenada corridor, frequently referred to, for good reason, as the Gold Coast. We are very interested in what our prospective consumers have to say about what they want developers to provide in terms of project type, amenities, architecture and floor plans.

The real estate boom in Baja California is showing no signs of letting up. With beachfront homes in Southern California reaching historic highs, many investors are looking to Baja for its pristine beauty, limitless recreation and the lower cost of beachfront living. Recent reports estimate that more than 1 million Americans now own homes in Mexico.

Many U.S. buyers find condominiums in Baja California very attractive, particularly for condos located close to the Mexican beaches. Prospective U.S. buyers like the combination of Mexican ambience, quick access to the oceanfront, common facilities and a price considerably lower than what they would have to pay in the United States for a comparable property.

Archived Reports

This special section includes the official program guide to the Tourism Investment Summit & Real Estate Expo, updates on investment prospects and information on financing real estate in Baja and the Sea of Cortes.